Sotomayor's choice

Of course, it remains an open question how Judge Sotomayor would apply her Catholic school experiences should she be confirmed and face a school voucher case. On the one hand, she might fully appreciate the invaluable gift she was given by being able to attend Cardinal Spellman High in the Bronx. She might reflect on today’s low-income urban parents’ hopes for great schools for their kids. She might consider the heretofore futile efforts to adequately improve traditional city school systems and the tragic impact on students growing up in public housing units similar to those of her childhood.

On the other hand,Barack Obama, who attended private school and sends his children to private school, hasn’t backed school vouchers for low-income Washington, D.C. children.

Comments

My own children attended both public and Catholic schools (I am a Catholic). I’ve taught kids who were in Catholic schools, and you can definitely tell the difference. They may not be smarter, or even necessarily better skilled.

What they have is self-discipline. And, for minority kids in urban schools, that’s the X factor that makes all the difference to likelihood of graduation and college-readiness.